It’s easy for people in the United States, Canada, and other “western” countries to take travel for granted. After all, it’s easy for American citizens to travel the world and come home safely, but that’s not the case everywhere.
In Libya, a country that is currently run by two different groups of officials, things are a lot more complicated.
The eastern portion of the country is run by military officials led by Khalifa Hafter, who is busy fighting Islamic militants. That’s probably why “national security reasons” drove him to ban women under the age of 60 from traveling without a male guardian. The ban will affect all passengers traveling through eastern Libya by air, land, or sea.
The ban, the officials maintain isn’t about religion, but stems from the view that women under 60 represent “civil society groups, who frequently travel abroad for work, [and] are being used by foreign intelligence.”
Eastern authorities did temporarily freeze the travel ban on February 22, after questions arose about its legality.
“[Military chief of staff Abdelrazzak al-Naduri] said…there are security implications that need to be considered,” said Abir Mneina, director of East Libya’s civil society commission. “We said fine, if there are specific security issues then we understand and support that because we are in a state of war and this is an important matter for all of us.”
Mneina did, however, say that she and her commission aim to get the order cancelled completely.
On February 24, the eastern authorities announced a revised version of the travel ban—men and women between the ages of 18 and 45 are prohibited from traveling abroad without explicit permission.
What this means in practice is that eastern Libya’s military intelligence and ministry of interior will need to issue permits for people who want to travel.
According to the BBC, al-Naduri said the goal of the ban is to prevent people from joining terrorist groups in other countries.
Libyans in the western part of the country probably won’t be affected by the travel ban, since the rival governments don’t recognize each other as legitimate authorities.